My Externship Experience

1
My Externship Experience

• Bayside-Sentara Hospital Pharmacy Department
• Virginia Beach, Virginia

2
What Skills Do I Possess? Content-Knowledge
Skills

• Content-knowledge skills are used in performing
  tasks in a particular setting to include the
  mastery of a particular vocabulary, procedure or
  subject.
• During my externship experience I was able to
  utilize and develop many of these skills in
  various tasks to include
• Filling drug and medication orders
• Operating and filling the Pyxis machines
  throughout the different units of the hospital
• Updating drugs and inventory and placing orders
  for those that have expired
• Packing drugs in individual containers for the
  hospital pharmacy

Filling a Pyxis machine in a specific unit of the
hospital
3
What Skills Do I Possess? Functional Skills

• Functional skills are transferable skills which
  can be used across many jobs and careers.
• My functional skills include
• Leading with authority
• Motivating others
• Facilitating personal growth
• Prioritizing tasks
• Analyzing critically
• Working well under stress
• Multitasking
• Keeping order
• While working in the pharmacy department I was
  able to prioritize which task needed to be
  completed first in order to fulfill the hospital
  orders. Filling the Pyxis machines is of the
  utmost importance in order to keep the patients
  healthy therefore, I contributed by helping pull
  the drugs each morning and assisting in filling
  the Pyxis machines in each unit.

4
What Skills Do I Possess? Self-management skills

• Self-management skills include personality
  characteristics and how you handle certain
  situations.
• My self-management skills and examples of when I
  utilized these skills include
• Efficient ability to correctly fill the
  medication orders in very little time
• Friendly ability to discuss and interview my
  supervisor and a pharmacy technician with ease
• Hard-working jumping right in and helped work
  in the pharmacy
• Healthy showing up for work every day and
  ability to perform all tasks successfully
• Independent requiring no additional guidance
  after training
• Organized filling the drug orders and keeping
  track of the drugs pulled from inventory
• Persevering completing each task fully and
  asking questions as needed
• Reliable being on time and willing to help out
  anywhere where needed

5
What Are My Values?

• Work values
• Job Security
• Advancement
• Location
• Personal Values
• Happiness
• Stable Family Life
• Fulfilling Career
• Close Friendships
• Good Health

Searching for an antibiotic to fill a prescription
6
My Lifestyle Considerations

• Develop a financial secure future
• Live near quality health care
• Try to make a difference
• Own my own home
• Live in a stable community
• Integrate physical activity
• Find purpose in work
• Live near relatives
• Be respected
• Gain appreciation for my work

7
Reflection of These Values and Lifestyle
Considerations

• All of my work values will be fulfilled when
  pursuing a career in the field of pharmacy. With
  many job opportunities offered everywhere due to
  the retirement of the baby-boom generation, job
  security, advancement, and location will be
  satisfied.
• When it comes to matching my personal values,
  because I will have job stability and good
  health, I feel that happiness will be ensured.
  Working in a setting with many close interactions
  with other people, close friendships hopefully
  will be formed as well.

8
What Do I Want To Do With These Skills and Values?

• Some of the possible career fields that I have
  researched and considered include
• Pharmacist
• Pharmaceutical Sales Representative
• Medical Research Scientist
• All of these fields include improving and
  advancing health care and most importantly
  helping out other people. As far as job
  opportunity is involved, there is a positive
  outlook with numerous job openings for all of
  these positions as they are highly desired
  throughout health care systems.

9
Which Career Option Did I Decide to Shadow? A
Pharmacist.

• For my externship experience, I worked at
  Bayside-Sentara hospital in the pharmacy
  department.
• Sentara Healthcare was founded in Norfolk, VA in
  1888 as a not-for-profit healthcare organization.
  
• Bayside-Sentara hospital is a 158-bed acute care
  facility.
• Mission Statement
• To provide services that contribute to optimal
  pharmaceutical care for all patients served by
  Sentara Healthcare and in the entire Hampton
  Roads region.

Bayside-Sentara Hospital Virginia Beach, VA
10
Being an Extern in the Pharmacy

• Shadowing at the pharmacy allowed me to perform
  many different tasks and learn a lot of what a
  pharmacist deals with on a daily basis.
• Some of the tasks I was able to perform included
• Being trained to fill a Pyxis machine
• Packing drugs for the pharmacy orders
• Pulling drugs to fill the pharmacist order
• Place orders for outdated and needed drugs
• Some of the many things I learned included
• How to differentiate between generic and
  name-brand drugs
• The tasks of a pharmacist
• How a pharmacist interacts with the doctor and
  nurses
• Legal and regulatory procedures dealing with the
  drugs
• How a pharmacist management group operates and
  the issues a pharmacy manager must handle on a
  daily basis
• The steps I need to take in order to become
  certified as a pharmacy technician and pharmacist

11
The Overall Experience

• At the conclusion of the experience and after
  reflection, I realized how fortunate I was to be
  able to perform many of the daily tasks in a
  hospital pharmacy and to learn the abundant
  information about pharmacy operations and
  careers. Having a variety of opportunities to
  shadow different positions in the pharmacy and
  see how it all worked really opened my eyes to
  the many possibilities available in this field.
  Seeing the whole spectrum proved beneficial and
  will allow me to pursue as well as endure the
  rigorous training that is necessary to fulfill my
  career aspiration of being a pharmacist.

12
A Learning Experience Pharmacy Manager

• In order to gain a clearer perspective about this
  career field, I interviewed my externship
  supervisor and pharmacy manager at
  Bayside-Sentara Hospital, Elsbeth Harp (Pharm.D
  and MBA).
• She was able to inform me about the different
  aspects of the career field to include
• The daily challenge of dealing with life and
  death situations
• Challenges dealing with drug shortages
• Some of the daily tasks of a pharmacists are
  patient consultation and physician consultation
  regarding drug dosages, usages, allergies, and
  compatibility
• The requirements and education necessary to
  become a pharmacist to include four years at
  Pharmacy School
• An excellent job outlook
• Advice to double-up on education in order to
  receive more advanced positions
• A comfortable lifestyle with a well-paying salary

13
Balancing ActPharmacy Technician and Pharmacy
Student

• Another person that I spoke with in order to gain
  knowledge about my future was Serena Dinger both
  a pharmacy technician and pharmacy student.
• She was able to fill me in about other aspects of
  the pharmacy field to include
• The difficulties of having to balance school and
  work
• The educational opportunities regarding pharmacy
  school, particularly those at Hampton University
• The importance of a positive attitude and being a
  hard worker which will allow one to be successful
  in this field
• The need to network, network, network
• The opportunity for growth in the career field
• The concept that working in the pharmacy field
  allows for flexible hours and family life

14
Is It a Fit?

• After completing this entire externship
  experience, a career as a pharmacist is a
  definite fit for the lifestyle considerations I
  want as well as my established values. My skills
  match up perfectly with the demands of being a
  pharmacist. I really feel like I would be able
  to be successful and happy being a pharmacist.
  Helping out others while emphasizing my strengths
  to including my perseverance, responsibility, and
  organization is something I am able to do now and
  will look forward to doing as a pharmacist in the
  future.

15
The Next Step in the Process

• My goal is to work in a pharmacy while
  contributing a strong scientific background,
  productive work ethic, and an ability to work
  with others in an organized setting.
• To get to this point I must
• Finish undergraduate school and obtain the
  prerequisites needed in order to apply to a
  pharmacy school
• Obtain my pharmacy technician license
• Research and apply for internship positions
• Research and apply to pharmacy school prior to
  graduation from Virginia Wesleyan College